The Port Townsend Dash

JK, on February 11th, 2011

Ben Braden, famous Evelyn 26 sailor who went on to smaller boats, has a post up on Pressure Drop about the PT Dash, an ongoing attempt to set the fastest time from Shilshole to the red buoy off Port Townsend’s Point Hudson. The record seems to be currently held by NORN, a hot rodded SC27. Maybe someone from the Port Townsend end of the PT Dash would like to take a crack at the record.

Current PT Dash record holder NORN, SC27

The Port Townsend Dash (or PT Dash) is an old time story of drunken (or otherwise) IOR sailors that wanted to “borrow” someones fast lookin’ boat and rip it downwind in a blow from Shilshole Bay, Washington to Port Townsend, Washington. Regular comments on the boats included “Drive it like it’s rented.” They just wanted to see how fast these things could go – and of course race from one bar to another bar!

So the story goes – these sailors would pick a day, usually in the early spring, that the wind and tides would match up to make an epic and quick run to Port Townsend. They would start off the balcony at Ray’s Boathouse (stories of the Bartender starting them off) and then try to hold it together as fast as they could for approximately 30 miles to finish off a bar’s Balcony in Port Townsend, now known as Sirens.

You hear stories (and they are just stories, there seem to be no records) of Climax losing their mast in a windy attempt, of a small multi hull rigged with a kite, of the Perry designed Miller Marine 70 ‘Meridian’ holding the record and then getting beat by a little Santa Cruz 27, ‘Norn,’ sailed by a Ballard Icon, Arne Hammer.